1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disposable seat cover device; and more particularly, to a disposable sanitary cover for a seat or chair that is adapted for single-use and is slipped over the seat and secured thereto for protecting the seat while also preventing germs on the seat surface from contacting a person's body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The spread of viruses and germs via the contact interface between a person's body and public seats, such as those in movie theaters, trains, airplanes or the like, concern many consumers. Movie theatre seats have been found to host a plethora of germs, since a single seat cart can be utilized by dozens of individuals each day. Just sitting on a contaminated seat immediately places a person in danger of contacting harmful, unhealthy germs. Moreover, seats repeatedly utilized may contain spilled liquids or food on their surfaces. These spilled substances oftentimes come into contact with a person that later sits on the seat, leading to irritation, embarrassment and stained clothing. Attempts have been made to provide measures to avoid or mitigate contact with these germs and contaminants. However, many of these devices fail to provide a cover that is readily slipped over the entire seating and is equipped with stability means that prevent the covering from moving lengthwise and circumferentially when the user shifts or gets up from the seat.
Various seat covers have been provided, however many of these coverings are not designed for disposal after a single use; but are, instead, designed for permanent use in homes or the like and require installation. Even where disposable sanitary seat covers have been provided, these covers are generally constructed and appointed for use on children's seats and high chairs. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,963 to Hunter, et al. which discloses a disposable sanitary seat cover for children placed in high chairs and shopping carts having a sheet with a base seat cover area appointed with passages for providing openings for legs of a child and for safety belts. Similarly, see U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 20050057080 to Collins. Also see, U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,841 to Madsen which teaches a disposable one-piece seat liner formed from a uniform layer of absorbent cellulose fibers bonded to a flexible moisture repellant backing sheet designed with an upper section sized to cover a seat back and a lower section sized to cover a seat bottom secured via folding the liner, and provided with a plurality of slots for securing the cover to car seats, strollers, carriers, highchairs and the like. These seat covers are constructed to be utilized in high chairs, strollers, shopping carts and the like, and are not constructed for use in covering public seats in a substantially encasing manner. Accordingly, these coverings do not provide a simple cover that is readily placed to substantially encompass a public seat in a manner that shields a user against infectious germs.
Disposable seat coverings generally disclosed in the art involve disposable seat coverings for toilet seats for hygienically protecting individuals from contacting public toilet seat surfaces. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,549 to Pitts, et al. which discloses a disposable toilet seat cover designed to fit over and around horseshoe or U-shaped toilet seats and for immediate disposal in the toilet after use thereof. Similarly, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,766,617 to Thygesen, et al.; 4,979,237 to Hazar, et al.; 4,975,990 to Chan; and 5,551,096 to Gardner for more examples of toilet covering constructs. These coverings are constructed to fit over the toilet seating while providing an opening centrally therein for access to the commode bowl and are not constructed nor appointed to be utilized on seats, such as movie theatre seats.
Other disposable seat covering devices have been provided that merely cover a portion of a seat. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,281 to Byrnes discloses a disposable back seat headrest cover adapted to be removably secured to an attachment strip mounted upon and affixed to the back seat fabric in the area where normally a person sitting in the seat would place his head at rest. Unfortunately, these coverings do not cover the entire surface of the seat to which the person sitting thereupon is exposed. Therefore, these types of disposable coverings do not provide an optimally sanitary seat covering.
Notwithstanding the efforts of prior art workers to construct a disposable seat cover device for use on public seats, such as theatre seats, to prevent or mitigate germ contact, there remains a need in the art for a single-use disposable sanitary seat cover adapted to temporarily house a seat. There is a need in the art for a disposable seat covering composed of a disposable material, such as paper netting, and having a stabilizing means interstitially constructed therein for securing the covering onto the seat. Further, there is a need in the art for a disposable sanitary seat covering that is simply slipped over and secured to the seat, by way of the stabilizing means, in an effortless manner, and is removed and discarded after a single-use.